Clemens J. Setz Receives the Grand Austrian State Prize

Clemens J. Setz is to be awarded the Grand Austrian State Prize.

The prize committee had the following to say about their decision to award Austria’s highest artistic honour to Setz: »With his extraordinary literary forms – which now and then call to mind the work of James Joyce – and his poetic and linguistically inventive imagination, for a decade and a half, the avant-garde writer Setz has done more to expand the realm of the German language than just about anybody else.«

»From his earliest works, Setz’s gift for incisive observations of everyday life and his eloquence were evident. His oeuvre is permeated by a deep empathy for that which is ›other‹, whose perception does not align with what is supposedly normal,« said the Austrian Vice-Chancellor and Minister for Art and Culture, Andreas Babler.

The Grand Austrian State Prize is Austria’s highest artistic honour and comes with a cash prize of €30,000. In addition to receiving the award, the author will also be inducted into the Arts Senate, a committee made up of recipients of the Grand Austrian State Prize who advise the government on important matters relating to the arts. The award ceremony will take place on 21 October 2026 in Vienna.